yEnc TZ - a utility program to decode yEnc encoded files, such as are used on usenet newsgroups.
About yEnc TZ (Version 1.13)
yEnc TZ is a simple, freeware, program that decodes yEnc encoded files.
yEnc TZ is much less useful than it used to be, because the current version of MT-Newswatcher, version 3.4, handles yEncs directly, making this program unnecessary. But yEnc TZ may still be useful if you are using a newsreader with poor yEnc support.
I wrote it because I couldn't find an existing standalone yEnc decoder for Macintosh, and I wasn't about to pay $15 for a piece of shareware just so I could look at yEnc encoded binary files. MT-Newswatcher 3.2 for Mac OS X advertises that it can handle yEnc encoded binary files, but it wants to hand them off to another program to do the decoding. You can tell Newswatcher to use "yEnc TZ" to decode yEnc files.There is a new version of MT-Newswatcher, now available, that does yEnc decoding natively, probably making my yEnc TZ completely unnecessary.
Older newsreaders don't know about the yEnc format. With older newsreaders you must save the articles, then, in the Finder, hand the saved articles to yEnc TZ.
yEnc TZ works on newer Mac operating systems (9 and X). For Mac OS 7 and 8, use yEnc TZ Classic. For older, pre-PowerPC, Motorola 68K based Macintoshes, use yEnc TZ 68K.
In 7, 8, and 9, you must save articles into files, including encoded text, then as a separate operation, run yEnc TZ.
Both yEnc TZ and yEnc TZ Classic work with files saved with MT-NewsWatcher 3.1. But you have to tell MT-NewsWatcher not to mangle the encoded text (see its "Saving Files" preferences.) I haven't tested with other newsreaders, but they should work the same way.
By the way, yEnc TZ, yEnc TZ Classic, and yEnc TZ 68K will also decode UUEncoded files, Base64 files, and Palm Doc files (some .pdb or .prc files). I often find that they will decode files that Stuffit Expander won't. Another advantage of using yEnc TZ for UUDecoding is that it doesn't truncate the name to 31 characters, which is useful if you are using PAR parity files which expect the original long name to be used.
This is freeware, C source included. (GNU license)
license agreement: You may use this provided you accept all responsibility for any liability that may result from such use.
David Phillip Oster
yEnc TZ Home Page (this page):
<http://www.turbozen.com/mac/yenc/>
C Source Code
Download C Source Code for yEnc TZ, yEnc TZ Classic and yEnc TZ 68K.
FAQ
yEnc TZ Frequently Asked Questions
Tony Nelson kindly submitted the following bug fixes, which have been incorporated into this version, both the released binary and the source code.
CWPro5 doesn't allow // comments when ANSI Strict is set.
Only quit after timeout if there were no errors.
Better structure for event loop prevents odd behavior.
File open write vs. append mode mapping fixed.
Doesn't overwrite existing files. Uses new name.
BASE64 and UU handle multipart messages.
UU doesn't skip last line 2/3 of the time.
All errors show a message. May still sometimes fail to write all remaining parts?
yEnc now accepts an escaped SPACE.
Only removes input file if all parts decoded correctly.
(October 18, 2005 Jeff Renholts kindly pointed out that version 1.13 never got to my web server. Corrected.)
Fixed a bug that would cause yEnc TZ to suddenly quit if the application driving it sent it one file after another, before it had completed the previous one, once it got to about 200 files.
Improved decoding of UUEncoded files: ignores embedded header lines.
Added a new version, yEnc TZ 68K for use by people using older, pre-PowerPC, Motorola 68K based Macintoshes.
Fixed a bug that occasionally caused yEnc TZ to ignore some articles, when it was being driven by multiple concurrent threads.
Fixed a bug that occasionally caused yEnc TZ to loop, decoding the same list of files over and over.
Added version info to the about box.
Encoded yEnc TZ Classic with an older Stuffit (version 5.5) in the hopes that users of older Macs will be able to decode it.
You can now drop .prc and .pdb Palm Doc format files on yEnc TZ, and get your Palm Doc files decoded to text files.
Spaces are now allowed in destination filenames, so .par files will now work better.
Under some circumstances, previous versions would put up multiple status dialogs. No more.
Added a preference to remove the source file if the decode is successful.
When decoding multiple files, no longer stops on first warning.
Added a command to the help menu of both yEnc TZ and yEnc TZ Classic to open the yEnc TZ web page, so you can look at the new FAQ.
Fixed the Classic version of yEnc TZ to truncate long output file names correctly (preserving the extension).
Fixed the Classic version of yEnc TZ removing all dependencies on Mac Os 9, by compiling it with an earlier edition of Codewarrior's standard library
Fixed dropping a folder of yEnc TZ files on the application.
Added a Classic target to the project.
Wrote compatibility layer so I can do FSRef style calls from classic.
under OS X, you can drop source files on the decoder. (added plist)
OS X icon
status dialog
preferences dialog.
fixed: decode is failing to merge files.
uses FSSRefs instead of FSSpecs for OS X compatibility.
writes to source folder.
get filetypes from internet config.
1.01: Oops! Carbon.r doesn't add a 'carb' resource. fixed.
Aqua menu bar.
OS X preferences event handler
MT-Newswatcher occasionally gives a -600. When I open in auto-quit mode, I now wait a while after I'm done, and only if I receive no more events, actually quit. If I receive more "open"s, defer the quit and process them.
Page last modified October 18, 2005